Recent Applications

Hudson Robotics has developed instruments, software and workcells to support a wide variety of the most heavily used live science applications. Each application is supported by a number of products, depending on the nature of your research, the size of your samples, and your required throughput. We will be updating this section frequently to support the many needs of our users. If you don’t see your application listed, let us know. We may already have an appropriate solution. If not, we will work with you to develop a system that will meet all of your requirements.

Some of the applications at the top of the list represent pipelines containing several applications that are normally run in a specific series of steps. We currently have two pipelines represented below, and will continue adding more in the near future.

High throughput screening (HTS) is a way of rapidly assessing a large number of candidate compounds or genetic modulators to identify active compounds, antibodies or genes which modulate a particular biomolecular pathway. Enzymes such as kinases, proteases, phosphatases, oxidoreductases, phosphodiesterases, and transferases comprise the majority of biochemical targets in today’s lead discovery efforts.

Hudson Robotics can help researchers that are studying the microbiota (gut microbiome) in anaerobic chambers with its small form factor, automated tools for bacterial colony-picking, sample preparation, DNA extraction, plasmid preparation and DNA normalization. Research on Gastrointestinal disorders, Infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, immunology, oncology and CNS are all possible using Hudson technologies.

Hudson Robotics’ unique capabilities and product mix have enabled us to lead the entire world in the automation of the complete Synthetic Biology Pipeline: from automated oligo synthesis and gene assembly through transformation, colony picking and plasmid preparation.

Combined with our previous work with protein expression and purification systems, Hudson now offers a solution to automating any process encountered in a typical molecular biology laboratory.

DNA/RNA/Protein Extraction – Isolate pure DNA from the cell. There are a wide variety of protocols available for isolating pure DNA from all sorts of material. But they all involve the same four basic steps: lysis, adsorption, washing and elution. The details vary, depending on the source material and the concentration of DNA expected.

Hudson has succeeded in automating the gene assembly process, the key first step of a typical synthetic biology pipeline. We have gene assembly solutions that can be integrated with commercial automated oligo synthesizers, as well as subsequent de-protection and purification. In addition, we can pool oligos and carry them through the complete process to form functioning genes and complete genomes, such as viruses.

Transformation, in which DNA is incorporated into a bacterial cell, is a key step in many biological and pharmaceutical applications. Hudson has developed a number of automated systems for transforming cells by the heat shock approach.

Colony plating is a key process in various applications that require the replication and distribution of viable cell cultures. It can also be used to determine if a transformation procedure was successful in introducing an observable property upon a culture, such as the common process of introducing ampicillin resistance.

Hudson has been a key player in the colony picking arena for many years. We offer several versions of our RapidPick platform, including the recently introduced single-pin picker. Easy-to-use, but sophisticated software interacts with the picker and the incorporated camera to identify and select appropriate colonies.

Obtaining pure DNA plasmids from bacteria are frequently carried out by lysing the cells and separating the plasmids through filter columns. Hudson offers a fully automated solution to this application. Plasmid purification is a technique used to isolate and purify plasmid DNA from genomic DNA, proteins, ribosomes, and the bacterial cell wall. A plasmid is a small, circular, double-stranded DNA that is used as a carrier of specific DNA molecules. When introduced into a host organism via transformation, a plasmid will be replicated, creating numerous copies of the DNA fragment under study.